In the early fall of 2001, I had spent about 4 years driving what had felt like someone else’s car – the 1984 Olds Ninety-Eight Regency coupe. Life was tolerable and I wasn’t really Jonesing for another car. This, by the way, was a display of no small amount of personal growth. It had been a long road from a series of six-month automotive flings to being fine with a boring Oldsmobile that I wasn’t in love with, but which was also not giving me cause to escape from it.
By this time, we had spent maybe 8 years in our present house. My neighborhood had been built in the late 1950’s. It was never a high-high end area, but it was the kind of place where lawyers and dentists and small business owners had built their “forever” homes in what were then the outlying suburbs. When we moved there, the number of octo and nonagenarians who lived nearby was quite high. Like our next door neighbor who went by Curley. Yes, he was bald. Curley had trained as a fighter pilot for WWI, and even in his mid 90’s still took a small plain up to celebrate the anniversary of his first solo flight. He was a fascinating fellow who spent a short time in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest man to fly a plane.
Another long-timer lived about a quarter mile up the road. Mr. Patton had been an executive at Western Electric – the place that probably built the telephones we Americans grew up dialing. I had met him and his wife once or twice over the years at meetings of the neighborhood association, but didn’t really know him well. Then one day I noticed that he had parked an old dirt-brown Cadillac out front with a “For Sale” sign in the window. Nope, nope, nope, I smugly thought as I passed it multiple times a day. I had known a couple of old guys who had owned those Malaise Cadillacs from the first half of the 80’s. My Olds at least had the hardy 307 instead of the miserable “HT4100” lump under the hood.
But one Saturday afternoon my curiosity got the best of me and I stopped to have a look. My first shock was that Mr. Patton’s Cadillac was a 1989 model – far newer than I had thought it was. Mr. Patton saw me looking and walked out. They had bought it new as Mrs. Patton’s car. “I switched over to Lincolns, but she always liked Cadillacs” he said. Sadly, Mrs. Patton had died about six months earlier but he had kept the car, telling me that he kind of liked having it around. Until it came time to renew the insurance. Mr. Patton was a practical man and faced the fact that sentimentality can be expensive. “I decided it was time to get rid of it” he said to me.
I knew that this Cadillac was pretty much the mechanical twin to my car, but was a 4 door with leather. It had about 89k miles and he wanted $5k. He pointed out the only things wrong with it, telling me that it was probably due for tires soon and that the bumperette at the left rear was bent just a touch after he had accidentally backed into something. It was a really nice car but it didn’t really set my heart aflame either. It was in really nice condition, but did I really want to spend money to buy a fancier version of a car that 1) I already had and that 2) I wasn’t really in love with? The color didn’t help make the sale either – this Cadillac took my white car with dark brown interior and sort of stirred them together for a car that was a nondescript tan inside and out.
I will confess that I do miss those comfy leather seats.
“It’s nice, but it’s not much different from what I have, and I don’t really have a need to replace it. I am sure you won’t have trouble selling.” It was right after that when he got my attention: “I am getting tired of dealing with it. $35oo will buy it.” A $5,000 Cadillac was interesting. But a $3,500 Cadillac, now that was something else – let’s call it a serious temptation. Maybe it might be time for an upgrade after all. The next day I took Marianne to see it. She liked the 4 doors and thought it might be a good idea. Actually, she had never really liked that Oldsmobile so she was probably happy to see it go. A test drive proved that the transmission shifted right and that the air conditioner blew cold. With those things satisfied, I shook hands with Mr. Patton and became a Cadillac Man again after a twenty-plus year break.
I still remembered my long-ago experience with the 1963 Fleetwood – an experience where I got two for the price of one: a car and a handy vacuum for my wallet. My long-deceased car-mentor Howard’s words still rung in my ears: “Never buy an old luxury car.” But I convinced myself that this one didn’t really qualify. Wasn’t it the same thing as the Buick and the Oldsmobile I had already experienced? Wasn’t this one built mostly out of the GM parts bin and not from parts made by little Cadillac elves in the old Cadillac plant on Clark Street?
This was another car that left me with mixed feelings. The leather was really nice – the look, the feel and the smell. At 12 years old the car was still new enough to be marginally respectable. My children thought it was the greatest car ever. But it was a lot like the Oldsmobile in that it just wasn’t what I loved. Also, it was hard to forget my old black Fleetwood, which constantly reminded me of how Cadillac had come down in the world in the intervening years. Maybe that was why those wreaths and crests were plastered everywhere around the inside – to remind you that you were indeed in a Cadillac. At least Cadillac was still using what appeared to be the same outside door handles.
It is also funny how two cars with similar powertrains and bodies could have such different personalities. The Cadillac did not require premium fuel and did not suffer the electrical issues that had plagued the Oldsmobile. However, this car had a minor but persistent powertrain vibration that the Olds never had. But it wasn’t anything bad enough to turn my mechanic loose on. And there was that auto temp control again. The Cadillac used a more complex system than the Olds. But where the a/c worked fine, sometimes heat would only blow with the “defrost” button pushed. Which led to some cold feet from time to time on random days when the system was being stubborn. I will admit to some surprise that the automatic air-leveling rear suspension never gave me any trouble.
Then there was that dashboard. In the summer of 1978 I took a job at a good sized funeral home. Between the 1977 and 78 hearses (two of each) and a ’77 Fleetwood sedan, I spent a lot of time staring at that dashboard. I had found it one of the least attractive dashes I could remember, big and flat with that odd bulging center section and the little toy-sized speedometer. I had figured then that GM would re-design it in the coming years. But they never did. 25 years later I was still staring at the same dash design. Really Cadillac?
This car hit the peak of our kids’ grade school/middle school years, and I have a lot of pleasant memories of shuttling kids to games and activities. There is nothing like listening to two or three 6th graders in the back seat talking to each other about the things 6th graders talk about (somehow oblivious to the fact that I was hearing every word). We were past the kiddie seat years and the Cadillac was now just as convenient as the Ford van for when fewer than all five of us needed to go someplace. People would ask me if it got bad gas mileage and I would reply that it was our family’s economy car – it really did get better mileage than the Club Wagon did, and I never had any hesitation driving it long distances.
Where the Club Wagon had one of the weaker air conditioning systems I had ever owned, the system in the Cadillac was one of the best I ever had. Marianne has never been a hot weather girl and there is no better car in her book than one with really good aircon. Our hot weather routine continued, where it would be explained to me that I would have the Club Wagon for the day so she could drive a cool car for her carpooling route. It was a small price to pay for marital bliss. Unfortunately, the Cadillac squandered it’s one real selling point for Marianne when, in its 4th year with us, the compressor started cutting out at idle, making the a/c no better than the van’s in hot city traffic. The cause eluded my mechanic – or maybe he was just getting sick of working on my old cars.
When I had been young I had worked hard to push almost all of my cars to their top speed. I wised up as I aged, but this Cadillac saw that skillset dusted off. Marianne and I had been in northwest Ohio for a relative’s funeral. We had taken the Cadillac because is there any occasion better suited for such a car? I had not realized it but Marianne had been in increasing pain as the day went on. At the cemetery there was no hiding it any longer, and she told me that she was sure she had a kidney stone. I asked if she needed to go to a local hospital. Her reply was to “Get. Home. Now.”
The longer we went the worse she got. We were on State Road 67, a two lane highway between Celina, Ohio and Portland, Indiana. I cannot tell you how fast we were going because the numbers on the speedometer stopped at 85. I reverted to my flying days with my eyes sweeping the view ahead in four quadrants, looking for any movement or threat. The weather was clear, the sun was behind me and there was very little traffic. I recognized an oncoming car as a Crown Victoria. With a black grille. Shit. I was probably 100 yards to his rear by the time he flicked on his lights and turned around, but by then I was already slowing down and pulling over. When the cop got to my open window, Marianne was in unmistakable agony. I was told where the hospital was in Portland, told to slow down, and was back on my way. We did spend a few hours in that ER before resuming our trip home.
My oldest, in 8th Grade. He is a Dominican Catholic priest now.
All in all, the Cadillac was a good steed for the 4 years I had it. I recall having to replace a wiper switch – which was still available at a local dealer’s parts counter (although with a light bulb that lit with a different hue from the rest of the backlit controls). But age was starting to catch up with it with little things started to go wrong here and there. Nothing catastrophic, but things like a water leak in the trunk and the need to wire the plastic grille into place after the mounting tabs got brittle and broke. And this car shared one quirk that also affected the navy blue Buick and the white Olds – the paint on the hood suffered from minute checking or cracking, which made it difficult to keep a good shine on it. It wasn’t just sun exposure and fragile lacquer paint, because the fender tops and header panels that surrounded the hood on all three cars shined like mad.
But that paint also made me a little money. We were getting breakfast one Sunday when a guy came into the restaurant asking if anyone owned a tan Cadillac. A woman had scuffed the left rear quarter panel with the rubber strip on her bumper as she parked her car, and this guy was a witness who wasn’t going to let her get by with it. The metal wasn’t dented or creased, but the paint got a little friction burn. I got her insurance information and decided to get a couple of estimates. The prices came back crazy-high because almost nobody was spraying old-style single-stage lacquer any more by then, and I had to go to a guy who did restorations. I got a check from the insurance company for far more than it should have been – over $1,000, as I recall. When I suggested making an appointment at the body shop, the finance committee at my house quickly vetoed that suggestion. “You are not putting that kind of money into this car.” I buffed the area out as best I could and was happy that my cost of ownership had dropped fairly substantially due to a flaw that most people would never notice.
In the late spring of 2005 a situation presented itself and I knew that my next car was on deck. But for reasons to be set out in a future chapter, it was going to be a few months before that next car became available. It was then that the Cadillac’s fate was sealed and I lost any desire to spend money on it unless absolutely necessary. The transmission was beginning to behave oddly, upshifting really early, but only when warmed up and on hot days. It was my suspicion that the car needed a radiator because those symptoms all pointed towards a transmission cooling problem. But it was only a suspicion because unlike my ’63 there was no temp gauge. But by this time the Cadillac was a 16 year old car with probably 130k on the odometer and I was ready to move on.
My middle son on the way home from a 6th grade basketball game. He just got married and writes for an education content company.
I had a little more trouble selling it than I had expected to. During my 4 years with the car, I had received almost constant offers to buy it. This was a car that was very popular among young guys and I lost count of the number of guys working at a fast food drive through or at a car wash who asked me if it was for sale. I remember one older guy admiring it when I was putting change in a downtown parking meter, telling me to be careful because “some of them young bloods will hurt you for a car like this.” But when I put some “For Sale” signs in the windows, I got no offers and had to resort to a advertising it.
My daughter as a 4th grade cheerleader. She just got married too and works in the office for a nonprofit.
This Cadillac was a lot like the Oldsmobile before it – a good, serviceable car that mostly did its job without drama, but without creating any joy either. But at least it did so whilst swaddling me in leather and brandishing a Cadillac crest at the end of the hood to make me feel like a capitalist fat cat. Thinking back, my recent history had evolved from getting rid of cars because I had fallen in love with something else to keeping them until there was a reason to move on. It occurs to me that the only cars I could recall being eager to move on from were the kinds of cars I had traditionally loved the most – the navy blue Crown Vic, the Oldsmobile and this one.
There have been some spirited debates among we here at CC about the effects of CAFE on big American cars. There is the argument that this segment was dying for other reasons, and there is certainly data to support that view. BUT – there is another data point. I may be an outlier, but the large American car had no bigger fan than yours truly. Most of my favorite cars had been the big American sleds of yore. But I had given the last examples of the genre a more than fair chance to win my love – and they failed. These cars were underpowered to start with and geared in a way to make the situation worse. There was zero incentive for US manufacturers to invest in these designs, and they let them rot on the vines after 1979 or 1980. If a big-car fanboy like me could not gin up enthusiasm for one of these, how could anyone else be expected to? I had, by now, spent ten years behind the wheels of three of the best examples offered. I don’t miss any of them.
But my next car would be an improvement – finally I would be back behind the wheel of something I was enthusiastic about.
That era Brougham was the best-styled of all the generation, in the small details I think. I liked the body-colored side moldings with no chrome beading, which gave the clean look of no side moldings, like Fleetwood Broughams up through 1969 shared. The later redesign, after the feature car, that had silver up 1/3 of the lower body, and the vinyl-top portion extending onto the rear door glass, was not at all appealing to my eyes.
I will say I like the ’77-79 Fleetwood tapered B-pillars, but it took me a while.
I agree completely. These had a “classic clean” look to them, and had been amazingly un-fussed with over the years. I once described the 1990+ versions as having too much lipstick.
I also liked on yours that by that time they had quit putting an engine displacement call-out badge on the front fenders.
Agree, Bill Pressler and J P Cavanaugh.
I like these earlier downsized Cadillacs more than the later models. To my eyes more cleanly styled and elegant than the lipstick on a pig later models.
Here’s the upshot to having owned an oddly tan Cadillac you didn’t love…your kids did love it. Years from now they will likely be joyfully telling others about that awesome old Cadillac their dad had when they were growing up. That is worth something.
Last week my computer jacked up and I couldn’t comment about how that Olds had a distinct JPC vibe to it. That said, this Cadillac better delivered on that front.
From my life experience, this is the quintessential Cadillac.
An aside…having seen recent pictures of all three of your offspring, they have certainly grown a lot since the pictures you have here were taken!
That is a great point – my children still remember that car with great fondness.
Your comment on the old pictures made me look, and realize that I had made an error by inserting the photos I had used years ago when I wrote something about this car. Formatting has changed here so pictures that worked years ago were too large now, which made the captions unreadable. Thanks for the comment that made me look at those photos again. Yes, those three have grown considerably. Fortunately, I have not changed a bit. 🙂
One time I had a car like yours as a rental. When I showed up at my destination (Ft Ben Harrison incidently), I parked and went about my business. At a break, one of the folks I was visiting asked me what kind of rental car I had. Not wanting to own up to a big Caddy, I told him that it was a new GM model…a stretched Chevette. Upon leaving work that afternoon, he saw me walk towards the Caddy and said loudly “No way.” I responded “Way,” and drove off. He told me later that the whole episode gave him a good laugh.
Another enjoyable entry by JPC here! I always enjoy your postings here.
Also a fine story explaining why Lincoln sold SO many Town Cars in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.
More than a few of my parent’s more upscale friends “defected” from to Lincoln and later Lexus because of Cadillac cars like this one….and never returned to the GM family.
Really, there was a lot to like about these, but Cadillac treated them as profit-generating dinosaurs after 1984. The newer FWD models were probably far more powerful (or at least far quicker due to the lighter weight and better gearing) but those never held any appeal to me at all. As for these, a modest investment in a new dash/interior would have given owners at least the impression that they were in something new, rather than their same old car but in a different color.
The one thing I enjoyed about this (and the Oldsmobile) was that I could see that this had been the kind of car that GM had been uniquely good at. Once time/tastes/CAFE forced them to move on, it was as though GM had lost much of its reason for being.
They could have dechromed that glitzy/cheesy dash as they did for the ’84-5 Eldorado and Seville at minimal expense.
Personally, I’ll take plastichrome over just…..plastic…any day.
Back to the XJ6 for a moment–it might be great quality-of-materials, but for design, the dash looks downright amateurish to my eyes–at least that right portion.
The worst part of these cars IMHO was the Olds 307 only putting out 140 hp. We were discussing these cars on another automotive forum recently, and a fellow poster pointed out that the 4.3 liter EFI V6 that came standard in a Chevrolet Caprice had the same horsepower as the max engine in a Cadillac Brougham. That is screwed up.
I have always thought that a Cadillac Brougham of that era with the 5.7 would be a nice
Highway cruiser, and mildly regret not picking one up when nice ones were inexpensive.
The 90-92 Cadillac broughams had the Chevy 5.7 as an optional engine. They were the last of the square broughams and are currently bringing obscene dollar amounts for sale. 90 had the Olds 307 standard and 91-92 had the Chevy 5.0 standard. Cadillac finally got it right just before they stopped producing the car
Back in 1978 when we all got “company” cars, my partner Steve got a new Cadillac 4 door DeVille sedan, and if I remember correctly, its design was identical to your 1989 model, both inside and out.
On occasions when all four of us were going somewhere, we took Steve’s Cadillac, and as a joke they wanted me to be the chauffeur. I didn’t care, it was a nice driver and I liked experiencing the very quiet and smooth pull of a very big (425?) V8.
I was a nice change from the 280Z’s “machine-like” aural experience, though not one I would want to trade for permanently.
As you noted, these traditional DeVille designs held steady for many years while Cadillac experimented, for better and for worse, with bigger and smaller vehicles.
Of course, the engines became smaller.
That dashboard is probably as familiar as the Ford Panther design. If it ain’t broke…
My Aunt Norma also bought a new 78 SDV. These actually underwent a styling update for 1980, but the changes to the Cadillac were more subtle than those of the Olds and Buick versions. Inside, there was almost no change at all. And oh, how I wished for one of those Cadillac 425s when I owned this. That would have made all the difference.
Given how many formerly loyal repeat customers GM lost with the engine mistakes of the 1980’s; Cadillac would had made more money and sold more cars by keeping the 425 engine and paying the gas guzzler tax themselves.
You would have been happier mechanically with a 91 or 92 305 equipped version of the Brougham – all of the underpowered complaints vanished. Or a 90-92 with the 350.
I love these cars, having owned 4 myself (two written up here on CC). But you nicely pointed out their flaws…lackluster performance, a dated interior that had some highs (nice seats!) and lows (the dash layout that was done by 1984).
Our 88 went thru 2 transmissions, and is currently in the shop finishing up the EFI swap. And has developed the trunk leak which is a pain to fix because of the padded vinyl roof.
Ah well. It’s worth it when you’re behind the wheel…or at the drive thru getting props from kids of all ages.
Thanks for the wonderful COAL!
I will freely admit that it is a great feeling, being swaddled in that leather seat with the wreath and crest out at the end of that long hood. If I were to buy an old Cadillac as a toy, I (being older and having experienced them) would be inclined to go back to the 1960’s versions, but this was the last one that really had the traditional presence and bearing of a Cadillac.
I was never a fan of the center snout of the Caddy’s instrument panel either, but inside and out I think the Caddy looks more expensive than the Town Car, in the details. I like that yours wasn’t the D’Elegagance. I grew tired of the multi-butto tufted cushion look that everybody did to death.
I drove a goodly number of these in the LA area when I was a valet in high school and college. Driving and especially turning one of these up in the tiny streets of the Hollywood hills is not easy, lemmetellya! But around the wide open space of the midwest, sure!
I see it has the Chevy Nova (and everything else GM) glovebox opener and the other thing that annoys me so in the same dashboard picture, woodgrain that spans the glovebox and melds with the wooden surround but it’s a completely different grain pattern so ends up jarring and looking like someone had to fit a different part from the junkyard. It’s plastic on this model, why can’t it match?
Yes on that glove box latch!! How many times had I seen that stupid thing in everything GM built by the early 70s.
On the wood grain, I had actually never noticed that. I am glad I never noticed this when I owned the car, or it would have driven me nuts. Maybe the curve made it hard to see from the driver’s seat? And all I can say in defense is that it wouldn’t have matched with real wood, so isn’t the non-match in plastic so much more realistic? 🙂
Actually in a well-done luxury car, the grain of real wood can and will be matched across the surfaces. Here’s an ’85 XJ6 for example…
I wonder what the actual price for that glovebox latch was, they were ordered in the dozens of millions…and how much more would something, anything, more exclusive have cost. Maybe something in the shape of yet another crest…to blend in, you know.
That dash is cringe-worthy. That alone relegated these into a certain demographic that assured its demise. It’s embarrassing, considering what Cadillacs had once been like.
Funny you mention being a valet. I too served in that capacity for two summers in the late ‘70s during high school at a local country club. The Sedan De Ville was probably the most common vehicle among the rather elderly club members and I remember accelerating ‘smartly’ to hustle these cars to or from the back lot. They all accelerated ‘with authority’ in the hands of a 17 or 18 year old at a rate much faster than their sedate owners drove them. I remember one member asking me whether I had cleaned the carburetor with a gleam in his eye, indicating he knew full well what the valets were up to.
The 4-door configuration appears to have made more sense for a family with school aged kids than the two-door 98. Glad to hear the kids appreciated being hauled around in the lap of luxury, too.
The mismatched wood grains are an odd aesthetic choice. However, Lincoln did it very boldly with the Mark IV dashboard. Maybe the idea was that it was the ultimate in decadent luxury — not one but TWO (fake) woods?
Another chapter of the JPC Chronicles that fills in more details and further explains your strong feeling about how (and why) these big RWD American cars went into terminal decline.
I know you pin a lot of that on CAFE, but then you wouldn’t have been calling it your “economy car” if that hadn’t happened. Everything is a trade-off.
Isn’t CAFE an average, i.e. the second letter of it? And if you produce and support actual good small cars that people actually want and do purchase in quantity, then you can average those into the excellent but inefficient and arguably more profitable large vehicles that people supposedly want? There’s nothing that said every car had to just hit the average, i.e. that you had to dumb down the big ones to comply, which is kind of what we saw happening I think due to not being willing (I believe the actual *ability* was there all along) to produce high-quality smaller and more efficient vehicles to balance things. In short, I don’t see CAFE the concept as being the problem, rather the corporate response to it, i.e. cutting off the nose to spite the face. And now we see companies producing larger vehicles again and ignoring or removing smaller ones from our marketplace due to the current footprint rules that incentivize size – which seems like it was rather a consideration/sweetener to help with compliance over time but turned into a literally giant loophole.
In addition to the CAFE there’s also a separate “gas guzzler tax” that applied to passenger cars that did not meet the minimum prescribed combined EPA mileage standard. That was pretty stiff, starting at $1000 per car if it was off by one mpg. And it went up to $7700 max.
GM, as a matter of corporate policy, was not going to sell any vehicle subject to the gas guzzler tax (as well as the separate fines for not meeting CAFE overall). That’s why they went to such extreme measures in their larger/hi-po cars, like diesels, small V8s, the Corvette’s 1-4 shift, etc.
The gas guzzler tax applies per car regardless of the company’s CAFE average:
https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P100F3YZ.PDF?Dockey=P100F3YZ.PDF
You get the behavior/results that you build incentives to encourage. Your argument (and Paul’s) is, in essence, that the US industry made bad decisions in hitting the mandatory targets. That conclusion is not wrong, but then again, another view is that it was a flawed system that put incentives into place that got us what we got.
You have hit on the problem – to hit “the average”, there had to be enough small cars (traditionally not very profitable for US manufacturers) to offset the big cars (that were very profitable). With the low gasoline prices back by the mid 1980s, Detroit was more or less giving away the small cars so that they could sell the big ones for a profit. And they didn’t dare make these drop a couple of mpgs to make them drive better because that would only cost money for no return (due to the need to shovel even more small cars out the door as loss leaders). So, both the big cars and the small ones turned out to be miserable.
You get the behavior/results that you build incentives to encourage. Your argument (and Paul’s) is, in essence, that the US industry made bad decisions in hitting the mandatory targets. That conclusion is not wrong, but then again, another view is that it was a flawed system that put incentives into place that got us what we got.
I can see you point, but where it falls flat is that GM had the potential to build good full size cars in 1980 but chose to cost cut and half-ass it instead. Look at the early 90s GM full size cars. They had Chevy TBI engines that had good performance, good fuel economy and met the EPA emissions standards of the day. Had they used their engineering prowess to the fullest, they could have produced that same powertrain in 1980-81. TBI was release on Cadillac at that time, and there was nothing special about the SBC from the early 90s.
Instead, I see GM, and also Ford and Chrysler to a lesser degree, produced half-assed engineering that just barely allowed them to meet the government regulations while maximizing cost savings. This resulted in a mediocre product and maybe that was the point. GM of 1960 would have never produced cars like this; they would have innovated to make the full size cars work. Like I said in my comment below, my Olds B-bodies were really good cars, but had they had a powertrain from a 1992 Roadmaster, they would have been really great cars.
That said, the full size car was dying in the 1980s and I doubt even if they produced 350/400 cid powered machines it would have saved them or improved sales. While the majority here are critical of the 80’s B-bodies compared to the 70s models, they did get far better fuel economy and that was really important to lots of buyers in the 80s. I recently found my dad’s old mileage records for our 305 OD equipped ’84 Parisienne wagon, and it regularly got 28-30 MPG (imperial) on the highway. My Olds 307s weren’t far off that either. Our ’78 Olds 350 was lucky to break 20 MPGs on a good day.
Very good points Vince.
I’ll add another POV: who was buying these cars new? Jim wasn’t. He was buying them used from…very old folks, who couldn’t have cared less if these cars were down on performance compared to the glory days. And undoubtedly they did appreciate the vastly better mileage.
The point is: car buyers who really cared about performance and such had moved on. GM knew who was buying them, and these cars were good enough for them.
GM never anticipated these RWD sticking around this long. They were supposed to go away totally after the FWD big cars arrived in 1985. But by that time gas had come down some, and GM saw that there was still a small but loyal market for these. So why bother spending any money on them. These cars were in God’s waiting room, along with their customers. Did Jim ever ask the sellers of these cars if they were unhappy about their performance or if they would have preferred a 368 along with significantly worse mileage?
I guess GM wasn’t building them for their second owners who had different priorities. Bad GM!
Detroit was more or less giving away the small cars so that they could sell the big ones for a profit
I can assure you that was not their intention. Remember how the J-cars were to compete with the Accord, and GM priced them accordingly at first? That backfired badly, given their many deficits, so yes, then they had to resort to selling them cheap. If you can’t make a competitive car, the market will let you know.
Other than an XJ6 was more expensive, its glovebox latch looks cheap to me!
I think the wood and plastichrome inside the Caddy look much better than that flat dash of the same year’s Town Car, not to mention the TC’s slab sides outside.
The XJ6 one perhaps isn’t the height of industrial design either, yet I suspect the chrome on the metal button with lock is of higher quality and the black finger pull underneath is nice if you consider it. Slide the index finger under it, push the button with thumb and you have a nice controlled opening motion vs the “Cadillac” button that is of a shape that precludes actually really grasping it if I recall correctly, you just kind of jam your thumb and forefinger against it and turn a bit. Yes there is a cost difference between the cars, yet another reason why the plastic wood should match, it’d likely be far easier to do than with real.
I am curious though if every dash and glovebox was the same, i.e. was there one “print” for the dash, another for the glovebox and they never matched? Or was there a large sheet or roll of continuous grain design and then random stampings/cuts were taken along its length making for variability between car A and car B etc…albeit with a repeating design.
In regard to TC vs Cad dashboard, I suppose one of the dwarves will likely be slightly taller than the other if measured…
Thanks for another enjoyable chapter! You know, I’ve never ever wanted to own a car that big. Wagons…well, I’ll make an exception because of the cargo capacity, but in fact there’s probably a reason why I’ve never owned the wagon version of a full-sized GM car either. Although, I’ll bet that my kids too would have enjoyed riding in and sliding around on the backseat of something this size.
“I’ve never ever wanted to own a car that big”
You can imagine how, after some of my previous yachts, I never really thought of these as big.
Your opening paragraph clearly shows how much GM went downhill in 20 years! In 1969 Oldsmobiles were advertised as being “Escape Machines from a boring drive!!
My ’77 Cad had the first version of that dash. It was such an improvement over the 74-76 dashes. I liked it and didn’t notice if the wood “grain” matched or not. I was aware that it was fake, but as I said, it was an improvement, even over my ’70 CdV. My ’94 Seville STS had real Zebrano wood and it was tastefully applied.
My ’77 came with the 425 engine which was a good match, and provided the kind of performance that was expected of a Cadillac. Mpg was only around 16 on the freeway, what did your Brougham get?
I’ve never had a really gutless car since my ’75 Hondamatic wagon. Even my Mopar minivans could accelerate acceptably and maintain high cruising speeds (85 mph.).
As the 90’s gave way to the New Millenium, large sedans just seemed anachronistic, even high status cars like the Mercedes and BMWs didn’t get the respect. Town Cars and Broughams didn’t fare as well.
I think one of the best explanations of the sedan’s fall from grace was the CC article that compared the Cadillac Deville to the Ford Explorer and asked, “Which is the real Cadillac?”
I drove minivans for almost twenty years, I thought they were useful and made family trips more comfortable and fuel mileage was okay. After the kids were grown and a couple were gone, I wasn’t going to buy another one. A few years later I bought an older V8 Explorer and surprising to me, I ended up really liking it.
Functionally the minivan was superior to my Explorer, it had three row seating, and was easy to configure to my needs. The newer vans with the Stow and Go seats were even better, but I just enjoyed driving the Explorer.
When I decided to buy a late model family/ road trip car I decided that a three row CUV would be the best choice. My Flex combines the best of an SUV and a minivan, but it is still lacking a certain”something.”
This year I got rid of all my old Jags, and was considering getting another vintage car, maybe an early Riviera or a 51-53 Cadillac. I was strongly attracted to a Mark VII, but I was also curious about luxury SUVs, I would have loved a new Aviator, but can’t afford that! I took a serious look at older Navigators, which display “classic” styling in my eyes. I don’t care for the “wide grille” models. I also prefer the 2003 -2007 dual pod instrument panel and dashboard. I found a very nice 2005 model which has even cleaner styling. It has plenty of power and runs like a Lincoln should. It reminds me of the big ’50’s, 60’s and early ’70’s Cadillacs and Lincolns that I drove in my youth. I bought it as a hobby car to fuss over and pamper. As a daily, the fuel economy is a bit less than I would like, however I’m now retired and I never had a long commute, anyway. But it isn’t that far from my minivans, and my V6 F150. I’m satisfied that it delivers that “old time” American luxury car experience.
Going from memory, the Brougham was good for around 14 mpg around town and maybe 19-20 on the highway? It was assuredly better than some of my older big cars, but then again I would guess that maybe half of that gain (especially on the road) was due to an OD gear.
I can see the attraction in those Navigators. I have been struggling to figure out what I would replace any of my current pair of cars with.
If I came home with one of these Broughams this week, my kids would think the same thing. Maybe that’s why younger people seem to gravitate towards these cars on the used market. They’re just neat, flaws and all.
I understand these cars’ appeal, though I’ve never been able to pin down an exact model year that I prefer over others. On appearance alone, I’d go with these ’89s – a revised grille (if I recall) for that year suited the car very well. The ’90+ models had some significant improvements (ABS brakes, available 350 engine), but then I could never get past those goofy looking “flush mounted” headlights (can you call them flush mounted when they’re mounted completely vertically anyway??) and those wretched door-mounted seatbelts. So, all in all, I guess I’d choose an ’89. And I like the dirt/coffee brown color combination of yours.
I once tried to make sense of grille designs on these and utterly failed. I think they kept recycling about 3 designs. This version had also been used in the very early 80s. I think I liked this was my favorite of the grille designs. And I certainly preferred the pre-90 cars.
Fantastic. While brown would not be my choice I love everything else about this one which is odd as I am mostly a small car guy. Except for these. I’ve always liked them. My wife hates them with a passion and tends to talk me out of them every time I am tempted. They have gone up in price recently so I’ve probably missed my window to have one sadly.
It sounds like our wives would probably get along fairly well. 🙂
I’m in the minority here, but I have always liked the dash on the big 1977 – 1990 Cadillac DeVille’s and Fleetwood’s. We had a ’77 and it was a very nice car and had the 425 V8 with I think 180 horsepower. Cadillac also used good leather in those years and the seats were so comfy.
Regarding 6th graders talking like you’re not there: that’s a key reason I am still a Scoutmaster, nearly 5 years after my youngest aged out of scouts. Better than mist Hollywood comedies. Sometimes I have to remind them that “nylon is not soundproof” when they get a little um precocious with their conversations in a tent.
That is a very nice Cadillac and great article JPC. From the write up, it seems to have been a lot less problematic than your Olds. It also seemed to be more loved by the rest of your family. One note I forgot to mention on the electrical issues with your Olds is that GM used aluminum wiring on some of its cars around that time, including those Oldsmobiles. This made caused some serious corrosion and electrical issues as the cars aged in the salt belt. Also on the lack of pinging, your ’89 307 would have definitely had electronic spark control, which would automatically retard the timing to prevent knock. It also would have been upgraded to a roller camshaft compared to the flat tappet cam used in 1984.
I always thought that the 1980-89 C/D-Body Cadillacs were very good looking cars; much more attractive than the FWD Cadillacs,Lincoln and Chrysler competition. These did drive fairly nicely and were very different than say a peppier and light on its feet stripped out Caprice. The seats and interiors were ok on these cars, definitely very conservative American luxury, but I agree with the majority that the dashboard was big let down. Of course the powertrains were never up to standard either. It’s too bad GM didn’t put the 305/350 TBI engines in until 1991/1990. They were much better, but the styling on those later cars was not nearly as nice.
It’s interesting you and I owned your 307 powered cars around the same time. I also came very close to buying a 1989 Cadillac Brougham to replace my ’85 Olds Delta 88 around 2006. It was a very clean rust free car, but had mechanical issues and the shop had put a lien on it. I could have got it for cheap and easily fixed the engine. Nevertheless, there was some issues over the lien and it just didn’t work out. In hindsight I am glad I passed up on it. Cadillacs were never my style and I had my fill of 307 Oldsmobile engines by then. I used to say my Oldsmobiles, in particular my loaded Custom Cruiser, were really good cars, that would have been great if they had a decent engine. I never did get around to that 403 swap, but I think it would have made my Olds wagon a really great driver (it was destroyed prior to the swap).
It would have been wonderful if Cadillac had started building the 368 again, the way Ford pulled the 460 out of mothballs. The car would have had a big fan in me with some power on tap.
I should mention that the leather they used for the seats was of top quality. Leather in so many lesser cars (Mercury’s, Saabs and Volvos that I had personally experienced) would Crack and split with old age, but those Cadillac seats were one area where the car measured up to the old ones.
I’m late to the JPC ’89 Cadillac party, but I really enjoyed reading this excellent piece, as well as how this Cadillac played into these family snapshots from a couple of decades ago. And the mindblowing $3,500 purchase price really brings inflation into perspective. That much today probably won’t even buy you a running Cobalt.
Thanks Joe. I like your phrase – it kind of was like a “Cadillac party”, one that went on for about 4 years. 🙂
Inflation (whether the monetary kind or just the general increasing costs of cars) has really messed with my sense of what a car should cost. I still think I should be able to find something decent for $3500, but that has not been true in quite awhile now. When I was in high school, I asked a boss for a raise and got in return a lecture about how much bread used to cost in the 1940s vs. what it cost in the 1970s. I was irritated at my boss rambling on about what prices for things used to be. I am afraid I have become “that guy”.
Well here’s another I have little experience with. In 1989 these were well off my radar, as well as in 2001.
As others have pointed out, when I did get a ride in a 1980’s Caddy the parts bin GM pieces really jumped out at me: Hey, that’s the same glove box lock as our Vega, that’s the same ignition switch as our Impala.
I now view the whole 1970’s/1980’s emission control/CAFE thing as unpleasantness that had to happen in order to get us to modern engine management. It would have happened eventually, but certainly not at the same rate.
The Funny fact about the 1980-1992 Cadillac Fleetwood was that the started out with carburetors, went to fuel injection, went back to carburetors and finally went back to fuel injection. I’ve owned two , 1980 (368) , and a 1983 HT4100. I can tell you that the HT4100 with all the bad wrap it gets, it did a solid 25mpg. ANYBODY I’ve ever talked to that had an Oldsmobile 307ci in any rear wheel drive GM car with overdrive, during the 80’s , all said the same thing – 20-22 highway. Mostly around 20. The HT4100 gave people what they wanted, a big RWD luxury cruiser that could get 25 mpg. Amazing for the time.
Nice to see another piece on this, JPC. I had a cotillion white on white leather with red accents ’87 from 2004-10 as daily driver in New England. And have had an Arctic blue with navy d’elegance trimmed ’89 as my Florida condo car the last two years.
The car and the underpowered 307 are much easier to live with in Florida than in New England because it’s flat and, indeed, much of it was developed to be driven around in by the original purchasers of these cars (I lived in Florida as a youngster then and remember the legions of Broughams, Town Cars, Park Avenues, Grand Marquis, and Fifth Avenues plying the byways of Indian River and Martin Counties c. 1985-88). I’ve praised the ’93-96 as a somewhat better car from a purely utilitarian prospective but these were better Cadillacs, even if they had been cheapened some and were very slow. To anybody born between 1975 and 1985 this is what a Cadillac is and when someone says “Cadillac” they don’t think of a ’59 or an Escalade, they think of this car.
When I take the wheel of the ’89 it gives me nostalgia that driving a ’59 or ’09 model would not. This car reminds me of my grandparents and being taken for ice cream at Swenson’s or to the country club on best behavior, or downtown Vero Beach when it still had fruit trees everywhere, and my grandfather’s car, which smelled like a combination of pipe tobacco and whatever cologne he used to wear, probably Old Spice and Canoe, and can envision him driving it, clad in large frame glasses, plaid golf pants, Izod alligator cardigans, and white hush puppy slip ons.
In the time between owning the ’87 and picking up the ’89 last year to do limited Sunshine State duty, Ive had the opportunity to own a newer Cadillac, a newer Panther, an older, bigger GM C Body and some Jaguars. Some of these, I still own. There are many things objectively better about each of them than this car. It’s undeniable they GM just milked it for all it was worth knowing people like my grandfather would buy it, probably with cash, and not care about the power or technology, just the size and appearance. From an objective historical perspective it’s easy to see the ’80-’92 RWD holdover Cadillac (and all of its GM cousins and panther competition) as a lazy effort that did reputable American marques little credit.
Subjectively, however, this is still my favorite. The biggest and heaviest car of its day and the “Cadillac” of my youth. Nothing looks or drives quite like it, for better or for worse. And now it’s almost 35 years on. As I think our host once said, I believe, of one of the previous decade’s big boats: who can hate these now? I can’t. Great fun tooling around in one in modern traffic.